Kindle Can Now Buy, Download Audio Books Over Wi-Fi

The Kindle 3 can now download Audible books over Wi-Fi. Photo Charlie Sorrel

Kindle users can now browse, buy and download Audible audio books, direct from their device. You’ll need to be connected to Wi-Fi to actually download anything thanks to the large chunks of data involved, but this simple addition makes the Kindle a whole lot more useful.

To try it, just head to the Kindle Store from your Kindle, and you’ll see a new link to browse audiobooks. You can browse 50,000 titles by genre, or you can search. And just like regular e-books, you can download and listen to a sample. The audiobooks show up in your main book list, and you open them just by clicking, as you’d expect. The page then shows a cover thumbnail, a summary of the book and a set of on-screen audio controls for playing, navigating and skipping tracks.

I have had a Kindle 3 for a few months now and I have never tried out the speakers. They’re surprisingly good. Speech is loud and clear, and easily good enough to listen to a book while you cook. And of course, you can plug in headphones.

If you are already an Audible subscriber, you can sign in from the Kindle and then spend your Audible credits instead of charging your Amazon account. I can’t yet find a way to download previously purchased Audible content, but I’m working on it. Plus, you can always just download the files and transfer them to the Kindle via USB.

I’m also running tests on how playback affects the Kindle’s battery life. More on that as I get it. Given that I have only charged the thing twice since I got it, that may take some time.